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Sandy Lyle shows
return to form with 68 Sandy
Lyle has played in 26 British Opens, most of them in his native Scotland. His
first was in 1974 at Royal Lytham, where he missed the cut. It would take until
1979, his fourth Open -- again at Royal Lytham -- before he made a cut. In
1985, Lyle won his first and only Open at Royal St. George's in Sandwich, England.
Since then he has never come closer than a tie for seventh, in 1988 again at Royal
Lytham, where a final-round 74 cost him any chance to beat Seve Ballesteros. In
1987, Lyle's 73 was not his best opening round score, but may have been his best
of his career. "I
have a lot of pleasure from it over the years," Lyle said of his 2-over round.
"I remember the wind was probably 35 miles an hour or something. It was almost
too strong to even be playing out there because of the ball oscillating on the
greens. So, I would say, of all the Opens I have played, that would be the top
as far as controlling the golf ball in those conditions." Fifteen
year later, Lyle's first round at Muirfueld was also special as he shot a 3-under
68 that tied him for the lead with Des Smyth, Shigeki Maruyama, Justin Rose and
Thomas Bjorn halfway through the first round. "At
the moment it feels really nice," Lyle said. "I'm hitting the ball well
and playing strong on finishing holes when you need to." Lyle
has played in nine events on the European PGA Tour this season, with his best
finish being a tie for sixth at the Compass Group English Open. He also played
on the PGA Tour early this year, though with mixed success. In
fact, Lyle has not won an event since 1992 when he won both the Lancia-Martini
Italian Open and Volvo Masters on the European Tour. Four
years earlier, Lyle won three times on the PGA Tour -- at the Phoenix Open, the
Kmart Greater Greensboro Open and the Masters, his second major. "I
just want to keep doing what I'm doing and that means putting red numbers on the
board," said Lyle of his week's goals. "Whatever it takes, if it's a
par-3 championship, anything for a win would be very nice. It would be a great
bonus this year to win the Open, but there is a long way to go yet."
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